For my first Bitcoin coding project, I decided to do something that sounds really dumb: I created a web site that gives away Bitcoins. It is at: https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/

Five ฿ per customer, first come first served, I've stocked it with ฿1,100 to start. I'll add more once I'm sure it is working properly.

Why? Because I want the Bitcoin project to succeed, and I think it is more likely to be a success if people can get a handful of coins to try it out. It can be frustrating to wait until your node generates some coins (and that will get more frustrating in the future), and buying Bitcoins is still a little bit clunky.

Please try it out and get some free coins, even if you already have more Bitcoins than you know what to do with. You can get some and then donate them right back; the address is: 15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC

How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?

Showing the number of Bitcoins available is on my TODO list. I just checked and the balance is up to 1,135 (thanks to whoever donated!).

And right now it is 5 bitcoins per IP address (not bitcoin address). Not per-day-- just 5. I want to start out conservatively, I will loosen it to 5 per (day?/week?/month?) if people start having lots of trouble because they get a dynamic IP address from their ISP that already got some.

RE: captchas: yeah, I was gonna start out with a captcha, but I wanted it to be as simple and non-threatening as possible. I don't think anybody who has access to hundreds or thousands of working public IP addresses would go to the effort of writing a bitcoin-harvesting robot, though I suppose somebody with a botnet might take a crack at it. To make that tougher I could make it 5 bitcoins per IP AND 5 bitcoins per bitcoin address (so they couldn't have all the bots in the botnet using the same BC address).

How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?

Showing the number of Bitcoins available is on my TODO list. I just checked and the balance is up to 1,135 (thanks to whoever donated!).

I got 5 then felt bad so sent you 50 back

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And right now it is 5 bitcoins per IP address (not bitcoin address). Not per-day-- just 5. I want to start out conservatively, I will loosen it to 5 per (day?/week?/month?) if people start having lots of trouble because they get a dynamic IP address from their ISP that already got some.

My mistake. I don't see that being a big problem. Perhaps have it reset every week? I doubt you'll be hard-pressed for coins, at least for now.

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To make that tougher I could make it 5 bitcoins per IP AND 5 bitcoins per bitcoin address (so they couldn't have all the bots in the botnet using the same BC address).

That actually wouldn't help much. It's completely trivial to generate a new address per transaction (with JSON-RPC). If I were coding a botnet, that's how I'd do it. Adding a CAPTCHA might be wise if you notice problems, but for now I doubt you have much to lose by skipping it.

Just out of curiosity, how did you build that on the App Engine? Could I possibly see your source? I might set something similar up on my local server. As I understood it, you can't make any sort of outbound request from app engine, though. So how do you send the coins?

I've been able to drawn 50 BTC in minutes using Tor. Please add some address filter too, so the same address can't be used twice. I'll also provide a Tor blacklist if you'd like.PS: I've paid back those BTCs.

It's out job to disarm thieves so this currency won't be subjected to the same atrocities as in real world.This currency shall not be used for one to be rich and in control and others poor and under control.

If you hate me, you can spam me here: 19wdQNKjnATkgXvpzmSrkSYhJtuJWb8mKs

I've been able to drawn 50 BTC in minutes using Tor. Please add some address filter too, so the same address can't be used twice. I'll also provide a Tor blacklist if you'd like.PS: I've paid back those BTCs.

How many public Tor exit nodes are there these days? You've essentially blacklisted 10 of them already

I am going to add a one-donation-per-bitcoin address rule to make it a teeny-tiny bit harder to cheat. I don't want to blacklist anybody coming from Tor, though-- I think a lot of people using Tor will also be interested in Bitcoin.

I'll implement a CAPTCHA when (if?) the current service starts running low on coins (there are 1,570 bitcoins in the faucet right now!).

How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?

The Bitcoin Faucet now shows how many coins it has available to give out (on the left-hand side of the page). The number is only moderately accurate-- donations will take 5 or 10 minutes to show up in the balance.

I also implemented another anti-cheating measure that should make casual cheating a little harder (which I don't want to say too much about because that would make it easy for cheaters to know what to do).

I'm very pleasantly surprised at how well freebitcoins is working so far; thanks again to everybody who tried it out and who donated bitcoins to it!

How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?

Excellent choice of a first project, nice work. I had planned to do this exact thing if someone else didn't do it, so when it gets too hard for mortals to generate 50BTC, new users could get some coins to play with right away. Donations should be able to keep it filled. The display showing the balance in the dispenser encourages people to top it up.

You should put a donation bitcoin address on the page for those who want to add funds to it, which ideally should update to a new address whenever it receives something.